Obama Asia tour doesn't go exactly according to plan
By Matt Spetalnick and Jeff Mason
PHNOM PENH | Tue Nov 20, 2012 8:25am EST
(Reuters) - It may have sounded good on paper: Win re-election, fly to Asia,
soak up the adulation of fellow world leaders, then go home with at least a
few tangible rewards to show for a legacy-shaping U.S. strategic shift
eastwards.
But U.S. President Barack Obama's first post-election trip abroad did not
work out exactly according to plan.
To be sure, he had a chance to tout a foreign policy success with a landmark
visit to the former pariah state of Myanmar, demonstrate he was serious
about improved U.S. ties with nations in China's backyard and take in a
travelogue's worth of iconic religious and cultural sights.
But even as Obama sought to strengthen his administration's "Asia pivot," he
came face-to-face with the tough realities of what it will take to counter
China's influence in the region.
At the same time, he found his attention constantly diverted back to the
world's biggest hotspot, the Middle East, where a Gaza crisis raged on.
As if that weren't enough, Obama was reminded regularly of the biggest
problem facing him back home - a looming "fiscal cliff" of year-end tax
increases and spending cuts that would shake the U.S. economy and
reverberate worldwide, including economically dynamic Asia - unless he and
Congress can avert it.
As a result, Obama's three-day tour, which ended on Tuesday, seemed be more
symbolism than substance.
At a regional summit in Phnom Penh, Asian leaders no longer seemed
starry-eyed in his presence, as they did when he first swept into took
office and was feted globally like a rock star.
Though Obama was roundly congratulated on his re-election, which would
appear to strengthen his hand internationally, no one seemed eager to offer
up major concessions.
A one-on-one meeting with Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao, who will retire next
year, yielded no immediate sign of progress on economic issues that have
especially bedeviled relations between the world's two biggest economies.
And <
http://www.reuters.com/places/china> China sometimes looked like the
one setting the agenda at the East Asia summit.
Obama urged Asian leaders to reduce tensions in the South China Sea and
other disputed territory, but stopped short of firmly backing allies
<
http://www.reuters.com/places/japan> Japan, the Philippines and Vietnam in
their disputes with China.
Possibly not wanting to further antagonize China in the midst of its
once-in-a-generation leadership change, he steered clear of the kind of
tough public rhetoric he used against Beijing during his last Asia tour a
year ago.
Obama did give what the White House described as closed-door browbeating to
Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen over the need to improve his human rights
record just minutes before the long-ruling authoritarian leader opened the
summit on Monday night.
But Obama aides offered no sign that Hun Sen had promised any major reforms
like the ones that Myanmar's quasi-civilian government undertook to win
suspension of U.S. sanctions and a first-ever U.S. presidential visit.
The summit was not a complete bust. Progress was made of efforts to forge a
trans-Pacific trade area, promises were issues against protectionism and
there was talk of fighting climate change.
However, actual concrete gains for Obama were limited.
HELD HOSTAGE TO MIDEAST CRISES?
It was the Gaza conflict that may have crystallized for Obama that despite
his preferred focus on fast-growing Asia after a decade of war in Iraq and
<
http://www.reuters.com/places/afghanistan> Afghanistan, his global agenda
in his second term may be destined to be usurped by one Middle East crisis
after another.
After dining with Asian leaders on Monday, Obama stayed up until 2:30 a.m.
working the phones on Gaza amid growing U.S. alarm that Israel would follow
through on its threat to launch a ground invasion of the Hamas-ruled
Palestinian enclave.
He finally decided to dispatch Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Tuesday
for talks in the Middle East.
Asked whether this was distracting Obama from his Asia focus, Deputy
National Security Adviser Ben Rhodes told reporters: "We believe that the
United States can walk and chew gum at the same time."
But the fact remains the time a president can devote to foreign policy is
limited by domestic reality, and the Middle East is continuing to gobble up
a large portion of his schedule.
Also dogging Obama's travels was uncertainty about whether he will be able
to put America's fiscal house in order after bouts of political dysfunction
shook international confidence
Obama took time on his Asia trip to call senior corporate chieftains,
including JPMorgan Chase's Jamie Dimon and legendary investor Warren
Buffett, to lobby them to back his fiscal plans.
But there was a definite undercurrent of concern. A development bank
official who addressed the leaders on Tuesday spoke of the fiscal cliff as a
threat to the world economy.
And even an aide to a monk who guided Obama in a tour of the centuries-old
Wat Pho temple in Bangkok on Sunday sympathized with Obama's fiscal
challenges, telling him: "Good luck with the fiscal cliff."
(Reporting By Matt Spetalnick; Editing by Ron Popeski)
------------[ Sent via the dehai-wn mailing list by dehai.org]--------------
Received on Tue Nov 20 2012 - 17:56:06 EST
